Currently petroleum-based polymers or non-biodegradable materials and blends are used to form sheets or molded parts. Such materials are not readily degradable and are therefore considered undesirable. One approach to this problem has been to use PLA sheeting or a PLA blend including a Polylactic Acid polymer (PLA) or copolymer with a second polymer to form such rigid structures. Unfortunately, current PLA materials and blends are not suitable for forming such rigid structures, in that such current PLA materials are not useful for producing molded parts having the desired impact resistance and are further unsuited for drawing depth to width ratios within the desired temperature forming windows as required by the packaging industry to produce such rigid structures.
For the foregoing reasons, it would be desirable to have an additive that enhances the performance of PLA articles.